Parents have been getting creative to keep their children busy in lockdown – whether it’s building cardboard forts or recreating Disney World at home.

But a dad from Hertfordshire went one step further to keep his daughters, Emily and Jessica, entertained during the Easter break.

Unable to take his daughters skiing in real life, Steve Cross decided to do the next best thing – bring the ski slopes to them.

Steve managed to craft a dry ski slope and chair lift in the family garden, using pieces around the house.

In a video posted on Instagram – which captures Steve’s impressive handiwork – his daughter can be seen sitting on a garden chain as a manual pulley system carries her up to a mini ski slope, which his other daughter has just gone down.

Once both are at the top, they slide down again.

The caption of the video reads: ‘We couldn’t let the lockdown stop us from skiing this Easter.’

Steve works for the UK’s largest indoor ski slope operators, Snozone, so is familiar with the mechanical side of things.

Speaking to Insider, he said: ‘The treehouse is an ongoing project of a few years and my kids used the slope to sled on, but had never skied on it.

‘The lift took a day to build and a day to test it and tweak it to make sure it was safe.’

Steve says the hardest part was getting the straps up in the tree – as well as keeping his project a secret from his daughters.

He added: ‘When Emily and Jessica finally guessed what was going on they were really excited and got stuck in helping me finish it off. They couldn’t wait until it was finished.’

Naturally, Steve’s video has attracted a plethora of comments on Instagram, with many in awe of his creativity.

‘This is amazing!’, one commented.

While another said: ‘This is one of the best things I’ve ever seen.’

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